Understanding Teams Meetings and Collaboration Between Pitt and UPMC

Overview

Microsoft Teams is an online collaboration workspace that brings together instant messaging, meetings, audio and video calls, desktop and file sharing, and more. It works seamlessly with Office 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, and OneNote. Teams can help you to eliminate email chains, simplify searching, collaborate more efficiently, and organize your projects. View Pitt Digital’s Teams webpage or UPMC Teams overview on Infonet.

You can create a team within Microsoft Teams to collaborate with colleagues on a project. A team is an online workspace shared by a group of people. Each team is made up of channels, which allow team members to discuss specific topics. Within a team, you can host meetings, conduct threaded chats, upload and share files, use @mentions to notify team members about important items, and much more.  

Both Pitt and UPMC staff members can create teams within their organizations. If someone from Pitt creates a team and invites a UPMC staff member to it, the UPMC staff member will need to temporarily switch to the Pitt organization to participate in that team. The reverse is also true. See below for more information on guest access and organizations.

 

Detail

Understanding External Access and Guest Access in Teams

In Microsoft Teams, the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC exist as separate “organizations.” Pitt staff members have “University of Pittsburgh” as their home organization within Teams, and UPMC staff have “UPMC” as their home organization within Teams.

When you need to communicate and collaborate with people outside your organization, Microsoft Teams has two options:

  • External access - A type of federation that allows users to find, call, and chat with people in other organizations. These people cannot be added to teams unless they are invited as guests.
  • Guest access - Guest access allows you to invite people from outside your organization to join a team. Invited people get a guest account in Azure Active Directory.

You can compare external and guest access on Microsoft’s website. In general, guests have more access than external users, including the ability to share files, use Meet Now, and see out-of-office messages for people outside their home organization.

Add a Guest from Another Organization to a Team
Switching Between UPMC and Pitt Organizations in Teams

After a guest has accepted the invitation and completed the initial steps to join a team hosted by another organization, they will need to switch organizations whenever they want to participate in that team. For example, a UPMC staff member will not be able to see a Pitt-owned team while they are in their home UPMC organization.

To switch to another organization, complete these steps:

1. Hover over your Profile photo in Teams. The organizations to which you belong will display below your name.

2. Click the University of Pittsburgh (Guest) or UPMC (Guest) organization to switch.

3. Important: When you are finished using the guest organization’s team, switch back to your home organization. If you do not switch back, you will miss calls and instant messages sent from within your home organization.

Add a Contact from Another Organization
Record Teams Meetings Between Organizations
Share a Whiteboard Within a Teams Meeting

 

Related Information

Pitt-UPMC Home

Email and Calendaring (Outlook)

Online Meetings and Collaboration (Teams)

Cloud Storage (OneDrive)

Access and Authentication

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EMAIL AND COLLABORATION SERVICES Includes Teams Premium AI note taking tools Microsoft Teams is an online collaboration workspace that brings together instant messaging, threaded conversations, meetings, audio or video calls, desktop and file sharing, and more.